Ncacc Plans $4.25-million Renewal Completion Anticipated In 3 Years

January 30, 1985|by ALICE LESORAVAGE, The Morning Call

Northampton County Area Commmunity College will propose a $4.25-million college construction, repair and renovation project to its eight sponsoring school districts. The project will address about half of the college's 1985 master plan.

NCACC President Robert Kopecek said the project, targeted for completion over a period of about three years, is "a minimal thing that can be done right now," and includes necessary maintenance on college buildings.

The proposed project includes:

- Repairs to the Science-Technology Building, at an estimated cost of $500,000.

- Repairs to the Business and Engineering Technology Building, at an estimated $1 million.

- Improvements to the air-quality system and renovations to instruction space, estimated at $675,000.

- Enclosure of the College Center, adding 10 new general-purpose instructional areas and a new service area; $1.4 million.

- Resurfacing existing parking lots, completion of a section of parking lot on the south campus, and addition of the first section of a service loop road on the south campus; $450,000.

Proposed financing responsibilities for the project are: the state, $2,125,000; local sponsors, $1,725,000, and NCACC, $400,000. Funding would come from a bond issue, with the college seeking federal money through energy conservation and other grants. Grant money would be credited to the local districts.

In addition to these projects, the college's overall 1985 master plan identifies these needs:

- A technology center adaptable to changing technology programs, at a projected cost of $1.35 million.

- A centralized information and admissions area to provide a main processing area for students; $1.2 million.

- A campus commons or enclosed plaza area for community and college special events, student lounges and gathering areas; $1.2 million.

These projects, added to the projects being proposed immediately, would bring the total project construction construction cost to $8 million.

Calling the $4.25-million project the "art of the possible," Kopecek said that informal meetings with superintendents of NCACC's eight sponsoring school districts indicated that "we wouldn't get approval for the whole $8 million. The sponsoring districts are the Bangor Area, Bethlehem Area, Easton Area, Nazareth Area, Northampton Area, Pen Argyl Area, Saucon Valley and Wilson school districts.

"The $8-million project really is what needs to be done and, I would predict, what will be done over a number of years," he said, stressing that the needs will have to be addressed at some time.

The $8-million total project "would have kept the payments or debt service of the school districts at the amount that would have been paid in 1988-89, but for 18 more years," he explained. That caused two sets of concerns: first, that the Articles of Agreement between the college and the districts would have to be altered because the articles end in 1996, and second, "that the magnitude of the dollars was too great.

"My argument is - and was - that, in 1972, when a dollar was more expensive, the school districts pledged $450,000 a year, and all I was asking for was a continuation. At this point, the superintendents are not willing to endorse that level."

He noted that, although the superintendents are "not unsympathetic" to the college and its needs, they and the college have received enough evidence from school board members that the entire $8-million project would not be approved.

"What this would cost is a continuation of the half mill on an average for all districts. Unfortunately, the districts see themselves as hit very hard right now. I think there are still a number of people who really feel the function of a school district is to concentrate on (kindergarten through 12th grade), a notion that I would like to dispel."

Noting he is pleased with the multifaceted campus study which has resulted in a "realistic" 1985 master plan by Spillman Farmer Architects, Bethlehem, Kopecek said the study "lays out what we need.

"I'm disappointed that we have to do this in stages. From a fiscal point of view, it's perhaps shortsighted," he said, indicating that construction costs for the additional projects will rise in the future.

Kopecek is hoping approval for the project can be obtained by late March. All eight districts must approve the project.

With approval, the first phase of the project - repairs to the Science Technology (ST) Building - could begin this summer.

The ST building is plagued by a sagging second floor and roof with deflections of as much as 4 to 5 inches in some sections. The college has sought bids for the work, estimated to cost $500,000 and include a structural steel support system designed to eliminate further settlement and reduce deflection. Bids will be opened Friday.